How a cinema hall gave Gulistan its name

You will not find any place officially called Gulistan in Dhaka City Corporation records. On paper, the area is Bangabandhu Avenue, earlier known as Jinnah Avenue.

Yet for generations of Dhaka residents, the name Gulistan has meant far more than a road. The identity of the neighbourhood grew from a single landmark: Gulistan Cinema Hall.

Near Fulbaria Railway Station, the cinema gradually became the centre of a growing urban district. Offices, restaurants, shops, and movie businesses gathered around it. Over time, the entire area inherited the name of the hall.

Researcher and journalist Afsan Chowdhury said the neighbourhood emerged around the cinema itself.

"Gulistan became the centre of the new Dhaka. Offices slowly shifted here from Sadarghat. Beside the cinema hall stood the National Bank of Pakistan. Across the road was GMG, a non-Bangali tailoring and clothing business. There was an ice cream parlour and a bakery called Rex," he recalled.

Film researcher Shamsul Alam Babu said the hall was founded by Fazle Dosani, a member of a prominent film-business family in Pakistan.

Before Partition, Dosani operated film distribution and exhibition businesses in cities including Kolkata. After 1947, he saw potential in Dhaka and established Gulistan Cinema Hall.

The theatre opened in 1953 and was inaugurated by Prince Aga Khan. It became Dhaka's first modern air-conditioned cinema hall and quickly turned into a symbol of urban sophistication.

Dhaka already had several cinemas at the time, including Rupmahal, Tajmahal, Paradise, Picture House, Azad, Star, and Lion. But according to film scholar Anupam Hayat, Gulistan stood apart.

"It was the most elite cinema hall in Dhaka," he reminisced.

Most visitors came from affluent families. Even the entrance carried an atmosphere of luxury. Perfume drifted through the lobby, while velvet curtains decorated the auditorium.

Mia Alauddin, vice-president of the Bangladesh Cinema Exhibitors Association, still remembers the feeling of entering the hall.

"The moment you walked in and felt the cold air from the AC, it seemed like paradise," he said.

For ordinary residents, however, Gulistan was expensive. Tickets cost between one-and-a-half and two taka at a time when the same amount could buy several kilos of rice.

Inside and around the hall

According to Shamsul Alam Babu, the word Gulistan means "garden of flowers." In its early days, the area actually featured flower gardens where people gathered in the evenings for conversations about poetry, politics, and cinema.

Nearby stood a Mughal cannon believed to date back to Mir Jumla. Locals simply called it the Gulistan cannon.

The surrounding neighbourhood quickly developed into a lively commercial district.

Mia Alauddin remembers an electronics parts shop beside the hall, the well-known laundry service Guilders, confectionery shops, and Purbasha Bar and Restaurant to the north.

Outside the cinema stood giant hand-painted film posters mounted on iron frames. Photo: Collected

Old Dhaka resident Tutu Saad, who grew up near Gulistan, remembers long rows of medicine, clothing, and shoe shops stretching from the Gulistan intersection to Baitul Mukarram.

"There was also a large restaurant called Gulfitan. Watching a film at Gulistan and then eating there felt like a celebration," he said.

Outside the cinema stood giant hand-painted film posters mounted on iron frames. Tutu remembers artists from a Muslim family, originally from Kolkata, climbing bamboo ladders to paint enormous canvases.

"They first sketched with charcoal and then added colours layer by layer. Some posters rose almost 40 feet high," he said.

The building housed several other attractions as well. Dhaka's first Chinese restaurant, Chu Ching Chow, operated upstairs, alongside filmmaker Ehtesham's Sweet Heaven Bakery.

Visitors entered through collapsible iron gates into a courtyard lined with six or seven ticket counters.

The auditorium itself was massive, with a ceiling nearly three storeys high. Chandeliers hung overhead, while a staircase curved upward toward the upper seating area.

The hall could accommodate between 800 and 1,000 viewers. Seating was divided into Front Stall, Rear Stall, and DC sections.

Front Stall tickets cost one-and-a-half taka, Rear Stall tickets two-and-a-half, and DC tickets three-and-a-half taka.

There was also a separate curtained section for women.

The centre of the film business

Gulistan soon became more than a cinema hall.

Behind the extension building, many of East Pakistan's major film production and distribution companies established offices.

Before Gulistan emerged as a film hub, these businesses operated from areas such as Victoria Park, Nawabpur, and Becharam Dewri.

Dosani's own distribution office, Anis Film Corporation, worked there alongside Seven Arts Corporation, Balkan Pictures, Asha, Rina Films, People's Picture, Chitradoot, Jupiter, and others.

"Gulistan became the centre of the new Dhaka. Offices slowly shifted here from Sadarghat. Beside the cinema hall stood the National Bank of Pakistan. Across the road was GMG, a non-Bangali tailoring and clothing business. There was an ice cream parlour and a bakery called Rex."

Afsan Chowdhury, researcher and journalist

A workshop named West Tech repaired projectors and cinema equipment.

At the time, local productions were still limited, so imported films dominated the market.

Mia Alauddin said foreign films arrived through the FDC and were later sold through auctions. Distributors purchased screening rights there before sending the films to theatres around the country.

Later, government approval and censor board clearance became mandatory for imported films.

Two landmark Bangladeshi films — Jibon Theke Neya and Beder Meye Jyotsna — were released through screenings at Gulistan Cinema Hall.

The cinema also became known for introducing international film technologies to Dhaka audiences.

Tutu Saad recalled watching Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock there and dancing while standing on his seat.

The first CinemaScope film shown at Gulistan was The Robe (1953), which required a new screen installation.

War films attracted huge crowds. Tutu remembered watching The Guns of Navarone and The Bridge on the River Kwai there.

"Some films ran for six months straight. Every show was houseful," he said.

When new English films arrived at Gulistan, bookstores near the stadium often sold matching novels or companion books. Young viewers would watch the movie and then buy the book to take home.

Tutu also remembered seeing the first 3D horror film, House of Wax (1953), at Gulistan.

"At the time, the glasses had one red lens and one blue lens. It felt as though objects were flying out of the screen. People screamed in fear," he recalled.

Among the English films Afsan Chowdhury watched there, Roman Holiday remained one of his strongest memories.

'Please come well-dressed'

The Dosani family later opened another small cinema hall called Naz on the building's fourth floor.

Unlike Gulistan, visitors could not enter through the main gate. They had to walk past a shoe shop on Bangabandhu Avenue, cross a collapsible gate, and climb a winding staircase.

Naz mainly screened classic English-language films and catered to a more exclusive audience.

The hall displayed a request rarely seen in Bangladeshi cinemas: Please come well dressed.

People wearing lungis were not allowed to enter, though sandals were permitted.

For many residents, the dress code itself became part of the legend surrounding Naz.

From cinema hall to market

After Bangladesh's independence, the Dosani family left for Pakistan.

In 1972, Gulistan Cinema Hall and its surrounding property were handed over to the Bangladesh Freedom Fighter Welfare Trust.

In 2005, the hall was demolished to make way for a shopping complex.

The plan included a 20-storey building with a modern cinema hall on the upper floors. Construction, however, stopped after the 10th floor.

Today, the building houses one of the country's largest mobile accessories markets, with around 1,500 shops. Sports stores occupy parts of the second floor, while the remaining levels are filled with electronics and mobile-phone businesses.

The cinema hall no longer exists, but its memory still shapes the identity of the neighbourhood.

The official name may be absent from government records, yet Gulistan continues to live in the language of the city.

Perhaps that is why bus conductors still shout, "Hall Market! Hall Market!" — a reminder of the cinema hall that once defined modern Dhaka.